buy it
Idioms-
Suffer a severe reversal, as in If they can't raise the money in time, they'll buy it . [ Slang ; mid-1900s]
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Be killed; die. For example, By the time we could get to the hospital, he had bought it . Originating during World War I as military slang, this term later was extended to peacetime forms of death. A later slang equivalent is buy the farm , dating from about 1950. For example, He'll soon buy the farm riding that motorcycle . According to J.E. Lighter, it alludes to training flights crashing in a farmer's field, causing the farmer to sue the government for damages sufficient to pay off the farm's mortgage. Since the pilot usually died in such a crash, he in effect bought the farm with his life.
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Believe it; see buy something .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"For oil it wasn't as if you could go and buy it like gas at £40 - it was hundreds supplying oil," said Agnes.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
His agent attempted to explain the comment away, but Chelsea didn’t buy it and suspended him for two games.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Apollo's move came after Castlelake had made a series of offers for EasyJet, which had initially been rebuffed by the carrier after it accused the US firm of trying to buy it "on the cheap".
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
This means that players cannot lend their copy of a game to a friend, nor can they buy it at, say, a 50% discount years from now at retailers like GameStop.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
“I’ll tell you what I want and you can buy it for me,” said Neeley.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
